USA > Georgia > Tift County > History of Tift County > Part 13
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"Both of the authors are living on a Tift County farm where they have been at work on the book over a period of about five years. The mother wrote the plot of the story and worked it out. The daughter, who is a teacher in the Excelsior School, did much of the editing . . .
"Mrs. Hooks, a widow, has made her home in Tift County since she was thirteen years old. She is a native of South Carolina, born at Lexing- ton, daughter of the late Izell and Emmoline Taylor Corley. Besides her author daughter, Mrs. Hooks has another child, a son, James Hooks, in the air corps, at Key West. Miss Hooks is a native of Tift County."
Dean George P. Donaldson, of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural Col- lege, was one of the outstanding Georgians, awarded honorary Georgia Planters degrees at the State Future Farmers of America Convention held in Macon.
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In behalf of the family of the late Dr. John Arch McCrea, pioneer citizen and physician, his daughter Mrs. R. C. Balfour, of Thomasville, made a gift of one thousand dollars in equipment to the Tift County Hos- pital, as a memorial to Dr. McCrea.
Miss Christabel Kennedy, daughter of Mrs. J. C. Kennedy, of Tifton, Senator Walter George's secretary, became the first woman to direct the clerical staff of the Senate staff of the Senate Finance Committee.
County Agent C. B. Culpepper was awarded a certificate of distinguish- ed service by the National Association of County Agriculture Agents for long, efficient services to the agricultural industry. On account of the fact that Mr. Culpepper could not attend the national convention in Chicago, Mr. J. K. Luck, president of the state county agents association, presented the certificate.
Pickett Harris, ten-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. P. T. Harris, an out- standing patrol boy, won a trip to Washington, District of Columbia.
Nature's distinctive contribution to 1941 in Tifton was the Aurora Borealis or Northern light, which citizens saw in September. Someone inquired about the new neon light.
One of the improvements in the city was the Georgia Power Company's I 10,000 volt line from Tifton to Jasper, Florida.
On Sunday, December the seventh, as people sat listening to their radios, the most significant message of years vibrated-the dastardly attack of Japan on Pearl Harbor while her representatives were in the United States pretending to be effecting peace. The days that followed were gloomy. Japan for months was victorious while our country was preparing. True Americans, however, prophesied that one day light would pierce the gloom.
On December eleventh Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, notified Mrs. Jennie Mae Anderson, of Omega, that her son, Garland C. Anderson, was killed in action in defense of his country at Hickman Field, Territory of Hawaii, on December the seventh. Mr. Anderson was the first Tift County casualty. He was with the radio department of the Air Corps and had been in service several months.
Tift County's second casualty was Theodore Wheeler Croft, of Omega. He was the son of Mrs. Henry S. Brooks, wife of the chief of police of Omega.
The chief celebration of 1941 was on December 15, the sesquicentennial of the American Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitu- tion of the United States of America. This celebration was especially significant because our war with the Axis nations was to preserve individual liberty.
Blackouts, which began in 1941, were more numerous in 1942. Often the signal directed people in a huddle in one room of a house, where heavy-
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black drapery kept out every speck of light from shining through win- dows. Here the experience appeared so real that people sometimes whisper- ed while waiting for the all-clear siren. Policemen would call on people who did not cooperate.
Knitting sweaters was as popular as it was during World War I. Stu- dents in the different schools continued knitting. Women met regularly in the Red Cross Rooms to make bandages and other things to send to our soldiers.
Practices for air raids were frequent in the schools. School principals or superintendents used police sirens for air raid alarms and the all clear signals. At the grammar school all of the children on the top floor came to the hall on main floor, and children in rooms on main floor hid under desks. At the junior high all children marched into the hallway and sat down. Students at the high school gathered on second floor hall and rooms.
Tifton schools sponsored scrap drives and collected enormous piles of tin cans, iron, and rubber. The Tift Theater had a rubber matinee, which netted six hundred fifty pounds of scrap rubber for Uncle Sam.
Citizens took first aid courses at Red Cross rooms and students received instructions at the high school. Tifton went over the top in bond rallies and Red Cross war relief campaign.
Nineteen-forty-two recorded birthday celebrations: Mr. J. T. Pitts celebrated his eighty-first birthday; Mrs. J. J. Baker, her eightieth ; Twentieth Century Library, its thirty-seventh anniversary. Mrs. J. W. (Granny) Poole celebrated her eighty-fourth birthday on December 7, Pearl Harbor Day. Her only son, Ralph Poole, was wounded in World War II. Her two grandsons, Julian Reynolds and Raleigh Smith, and her great- grandson, Henry Bostic, were also in service. Mr. and Mrs. T. U. Slay- ton, Omega, celebrated their golden anniversary.
Improvements continued in Tifton. The city bought a fire truck of five- hundred-gallons capacity. The body had a capacity of 1,200 feet, two-and- one-half-inch double jacket. Fire hose and panels were made of heavy special body steel. The pump had a capacity of five hundred gallons. The new peanut shelling plant at the Southern Cotton Mill was one of the most modern in the South.
Among the people honored, during 1942 was Mrs. T. C. Tidwell, whose song, "Mother Eagle's Lullaby" was accepted by Five Star Music and played by Lew Tobin's orchestra.
Mary Mason Barkuloo, an accomplished musician, was the first woman from Tifton to be sworn in as a member of the Woman's Army Auxiliary Corps. Miss Grace Bohannon was the second Tift County girl accepted in the W.A.A.C.
Tifton was honored in receiving in 1942 a new citizen, Commander William Woodward Outerbridge, of the United States Navy. He was
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decorated with the Navy Cross for distinguished service as commander of U. S. S. Ward.
Commander Outerbridge registered at the Tift County courthouse for the first time to vote in the United States. He, the son of Jessie, an Ameri- can citizen, and William Outerbridge, an Englishman, was born in China, April 14, 1906. Young Outerbridge came to America when eight years old and entered the fourth grade at Middleport, Ohio. Before coming to America he had attended a school in Dover, England. After graduating at the preparatory school in Marion, Alabama, he entered the Naval Acad- emy.
On December 15, 1928, he married Grace Fulwood, of Tifton, at Wil- mington, California. Their three sons are Billy, Tommie, and Bob.
Commander Outerbridge was presented the Navy Cross by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander-in-chief of the United Pacific fleet. In connection with the Navy Cross, Commander Outerbridge received a cita- tion signed by Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, for the President.
The incident which was responsible for Commander Outerbridge's re- ceiving the Navy Cross was described in the Tifton Gazette :
"The U. S. S. Ward, of which Mr. Outerbridge was commanding of- ficer, was on inshore patrol duty three miles out from the entrance to Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. At about 6:40 o'clock the officer of the deck sighted some object behind the U. S. S. Antares and at first thought it was a buoy, but there were no buoys there and the object was seen to move. Commander Outerbridge, who was in the Captain's emergency cabin, was notified by the officer that he had sighted a strange object that looked like the conning tower of a submarine, and gave the order to go to general quarters, which is to man the battle stations, and the general alarm was sounded.
"Commander Outerbridge then gave the order to fire and the first shot was fired by number I gun, but the shell went over the sub. The second shot was fired by number 3 gun from 50 yards or less and the shell struck the sub at the waterline, which was the junction of the hull and conning tower. The damage was seen by several men of the crew and the hit was square and positive, with no evidence that the projectile ricocheted. The projectile was seen to explode and the sub heeled over to the starboard and sank. The Ward then rushed across the course of the sub and dropped depth bombs. The sub, which was of the midget Japanese type, just settled to the bottom and did not explode. The Ward was not fired upon by either the sub it sank or by the two others contacted by the sound device."
The Ward fired at 6:40, in the morning, an hour and ten minutes be- fore the attack on Pearl Harbor. Commander Outerbridge has the dis- tinction of firing the first effective shots in the war between the United
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States and Japan. The number 3 gun of the Ward has received an honor plaque.
While Outerbridge was serving on U. S. S. California after his gradua- tion at Annapolis, the boys on the ship presented him with a bronze, minia- ture light house, sixteen inches tall, thirty-two inches at the base, and eight inches near the tower. Outerbridge treasured the little bronze house as if it had been a talisman, but when the call came for him to go overseas he left the light house with his brother-in-law's wife, Mrs. Paul Fulwood, Sr.
On D Day at three o'clock when the whistle sounded in Tifton Mrs. Fulwood lighted the little house with electricity. Exactly at the moment President Truman was announcing Germany's unconditional surrender the topmost light went out. The lower light, where the watchman should stay, still burning welcomed Captain Outerbridge to his home, Tifton, where he addressed the American Legion on Pearl Harbor Day in 1945.
The Tifton Gazette in 1942 honored couples who had been married the longest. Mr. and Mrs. Funderburke married sixty-one years, won first prize in the longest marriage contest, a year's subscription for the Gazette; Mr. and Mrs. T. A. Hardy, Omega, married fifty-eight years, second prize; Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Davis, Tifton, married fifty-six years, third prize, three months subscription. Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Whiddon, married fifty-four years, Judge and Mrs. J. H. White, fifty years, Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Parkerson, forty-five years, and Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Willis, forty- three years, received honorable mention.
These celebrations, although relieving the strain to a certain extent, could not get people's minds off the war; for there were constant remind- ers. President Roosevelt set April 27, 1942 for registration day for all men between forty-five and sixty-five years old.
A little humor, however, was sprinkled in the seriousness of the situa- tion, when Irvin S. Cobb, famous humorist, was a visitor to Tifton for a few hours in July, 1942. "He stopped off here en route from a South American trip to Hollywood for the purpose of some work that has just been completed by Mrs. Mary Duff Arnold for Mrs. Clayton Sedgewick Cooper, to be placed in the Museum of Natural History in New York and in some other museums to be selected." (Tifton Gazette.)
By December, 1942, there was so much news about Tift County boys and girls in services that we could not even mention all the facts. Ed Tyson, a former T. H. S. student and star football player, however, had such an unusual experience that a reference is befitting here. He was on the Joseph Hewes transport when the Japanese torpedoed and sank it off the coast of Africa. After floating for hours on a life raft he was rescued. Upon his return to the States in December, he told interesting stories about his experience among the Arabs.
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Tift County had three young men on the aircraft Wasp, torpedoed by the Japs: Marvin Lester McGill, son of John McGill; Everett Ham- mock, Omega; and electrician Talmadge May, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. May, Route 2, Tifton. Talmadge was lost, but the other two boys were rescued.
The story of the Wasp according to John Everett Hammock was pub- lished in the Tifton Gazette :
"The Wasp with a task force was in the Coral Sea off the Solomon's Islands on September 15, watching for a Jap fleet that was attempting to land forces in the Solomons. The ship's crew had been at general quarters (battle stations) that morning and at 10:30 o'clock were secured from general quarters (called off battle stations). Some planes from the carrier had been in the air and come in and landed at 2:10. It was around 2:30 in the afternoon when the first torpedo struck the Wasp. Just a few minutes before the torpedo struck, seventeen planes took off from the Wasp and were circling the ship when the torpedo struck.
"Hammock was in his compartment when the first torpedo struck. Im- mediately the men assumed their battle stations. Hammock's station was in the radio room . .. Three torpedoes struck the Wasp . .. Hammock went up on flight deck, which was listing as one side of the carrier was filling with water.
"The explosions from the fuel and ammmunition stores were terrific. Flames were everywhere. Men grabbed water hose and fought like mad to control the fire on the ship . . .
"Men fought hours before receiving orders to abandon ship. Some of the men had life rafts, some jumped into the sea with life jackets on, and some did not have on life jackets. Some were partially dressed, some in underwear, and some with no clothes.
"Hammock, in underwear, jumped overboard and for thirty minutes swam with no life jacket on until a fellow with two jackets gave him one. Hammock with 720 others was picked up by a destroyer. He was on the destroyer two days before reaching New Caledonia."
McGill said the Wasp was one of the cleanest and best ships that ever sailed on the ocean. To him it was just like home. He preferred the air- craft carrier to any in the navy. The first English Spitfire plane that landed on any aircraft deck landed on the flight deck of the Wasp.
McGill was in his living compartment when the Wasp was first hit. Hearing the first two torpedoes hit, he grabbed his shirt and started for his battle station on the signal bridge. When the third earthquake torpedo hit, it knocked down everyone who was standing. When he reached the signal bridge, the explosions were deafening. McGill was almost stiffled and his hair was singed. After leaving the battle station he went to the stern of the flight deck and began pushing off planes that had crashed in
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the explosion. He witnessed horrible sights before abandoning the ship. McGill shed tears as he saw the ship burn, for it had been his home. He and others in rubber life rafts were desolate as they paddled away from the burning ship.
After three hours on water he was picked up by a motor whale boat. Salt water and oil made him deathly sick. Finally he was transferred from a whale boat to a destroyer and returned to the States on a transport. He landed in San Diego, California.
Nineteen-forty-three began with a time confusion in Tifton. The town changed from eastern war time to central war time, then in a few days returned to eastern war time.
The war theme continued with little hope of a change to peace. During February the Tifton schoo's collected clothes for the unfortunate Russians whom the German army had left desolate.
Mrs. Ellen Forrester Dyal, of Tifton, was commissioned ensign in the United States Naval Reserve and assigned to active duty, May 4. Sara Roan Coan received her commission as second lieutenant in the Women Reserve of the United States Marines. Coan was the first Woman's Auxili- ary of the Marines to receive a commission.
Five of the schools of Tift County received jeep citations for participa- tion in the May school-at-war bond campaign: Omega, Harding, Chula, Emanuel, and Ty Ty.
The fighter-plane that the Tift County school superintendents had the pleasure of naming on account of oversubscribing to the war bond quota was named Christabel Tift County for Miss Christabel Kennedy, Senator Walter George's secretary, who helped secure the Tifton air base for her home town, Tifton. The Tift County in the name indicates that Tift Countians oversubscribed the bonds.
Carolyn Barkuloo was the first eighteen-year-old in Georgia to register under the new law, which allowed eighteen-year-old boys and girls to vote.
Nineteen-forty-four was gloomy with war news. Many of Tift County's best young men were killed in action. There were, however, a few gleams that pierced the darkness. Walter B. Leverette, Jr., Route 2, was one of twenty Georgians, Future Farmers of America honored in Atlanta. At the Macon Convention in 1938 he received an award, the Georgia Planters' degree.
A daughter of Tifton, Mrs. Robert Heinsohn, now of Thomasville re- ceived an inquiry about her biography to be included in "Who's Who of America."
As a respite from war, Tifton took time to rejoice over the achievements of Major Henry T. Myers, who piloted a C-54 army transport plane on the first non-stop flight from London to Washington (see chapter on pioneers for details), and of Dr. S. A. Martin, who wrote a history of
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Florida. In connection with Florida's centennial celebration Dr. Mar- tin's history, "Florida During Territorial Days" was published by the Georgia University Press.
The Tifton Gazette commented about the history: "The thoroughness and attractiveness of Dr. Martin's centennial study have been highly praised by distinguished historians."
Sidney Walter Martin, son of Mr. and Mrs. S. A. Martin, was born in Tift County, Georgia. He attended public schools of Tifton and gradu- ated from high school in 1929. His undergraduate courses were completed at Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, where he was gradu- ated cum laude in class of 1932. From 1932-1934 he was instructor at Palatka (Florida) High School.
After studying in the graduate school in the University of Georgia, Mar- tin received the master's degree, with history as a major, in 1935. He was then made instructor of history at the University of Georgia; in 1939 he was elected assistant professor, and in 1944, promoted to an assistant professorship. He was granted a leave of absence in 1938-39 and in 1941- 42 to do graduate work at the University of North Carolina. Martin re- ceived the Ph.D. at this institution in 1942.
Besides his history of Florida he has contributed to the American His- torical Review, Journal of Southern History, Georgia Historical Quar- terly, and the Florida Historical Quarterly. He is now writing a biography of Henry M. Flagler, associate with John D. Rockefeller in the Standard Oil Company and builder of the Florida East Coast Railroad.
From 1943 to 1945 Martin was acting head of the history department at the University of Georgia, and in 1945 was assistant dean of faculties, a position which he now holds along with his teaching duties.
He is active in civic and religious affairs in Athens, being a member of the Kiwanis Club and the First Methodist Church of that city. He is a member of the Southern Historical Association.
His wife is the former Clare Phillips of Palatka, Florida. Their only child, Ellen Claire Martin, was born in 1942.
The climax of 1944 was D Day on the sixth of June-the invasion of Germany. A long time before this event all the Tifton churches were open for people to visit and pray for peace. At three o'clock in the morning the siren in Tifton brought hundreds of people bounding from their beds to pray.
Nineteen-forty-five, one of the momentous years in the history of the world, gave us V E Day, May 8, Germany's surrender, August 10, Japan's surrender, and V J Day, August 31, the date of the signing of the final surrender document aboard the Battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
Different types of events came swiftly. The Memorial Recreation Com- mittee of the Tift County Chamber of Commerce, J. E. Newton, Mrs.
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F. H. Corry, Mrs. J. J. Clyatt, Judge R. Eve, J. G. Jolley, Joseph Kent, and J. E. Waldrop met with Charles M. Groves, recreation represent- ative of the Federal Security Agency to discuss plans for the proposed $150,000 recreation center in memory of veterans of World War I and World War II.
The Tifton Playground and Recreationg Board, named by the Tifton City commission, elected Judge Eve, president; Dr. L. O. Shaw, secretary, and J. E. Newton, treasurer. Other members were A. C. Tift and J. E. Waldrop.
Another bright spot in the war gloom was the experience of Lieutenant Colonel Henry T. Myers, son of Mrs. and the late Mr. I. W. Myers. Lieutenant Colonel Myers flew President Roosevelt from Malta Island, in the Mediterranean, to the Crimea for his conference with Marshal Stalin and Prime Minister Churchill and later flew the President back to Egypt.
Progress continued in Tifton during 1944. The town established itself as a bee center and shipped twenty-five tons of bees to different points. A modern cannery shop was opened. Trucks, wagons, and cars filled with corn and lined up on both sides of the street near the modern plant of Phillips Milling Company on Second Street reminded people of the old days during cotton ginning season.
Another conspicuous sign of progress was the success of the bookmobile, which visited eight county schools once every four weeks, besides visiting homes in rural districts.
Mrs. E. G. Thornhill, librarian, circulated between thirteen hundred and fourteen hundred books over the county. She left Tifton about nine o'clock in the morning. Young and old eagerly awaited the sound of the bookmobile and rushed to get books as soon as it parked. Its success was due to the cooperation of Tift County Board of Education, county commis- sioners, school superintendents, teachers, children, and the librarian.
The horrors of war continued, but occasionally a gleam of light broke through the dark clouds. On March 25, 1945, Leon Swindell, who had been in a Japanese prison, arrived in Tifton. The Tifton High School and Spence Field bands met him at the train and paraded to the courthouse where the town gave Swindell a welcome.
S. B. Lassiter, chairman of Tift County Red Cross Chapter acted as master of ceremonies, and the Reverend Davis Sanders gave the invoca- tion. After the introduction of Sergeant Swindell to the crowd, the Spence Band played "God Bless America."
Dean G. P. Donaldson welcomed Sergeant Swindell; Mrs. H. B. Dur- ham presented flowers, A. E. Danielson presented to Swindell a chest of silver from Tifton citizens. The meeting closed with "The Star Spangled Banner."
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Swindell, who was in the army before the war started, flew to the Pacific when General Douglas MacArthur called for technical men. While sitting in a barracks at Nichols Field, Sergeant Swindell, an experienced radio man, listened on December 7, 1941 to the news about Pearl Harbor disaster. He was taken prisoner the following April.
On January 30, 1945, he was among the Americans rescued by Rangers from the camp at Cabanatum; while at this prison he lost forty pounds on account of the starvation diet and tropical diseases.
The return of Swindell and good news about some of our boys who had been missing in action cheered the hearts of Tifton people. On April 12, however, a cloud of sorrow hung over the nation-President Roosevelt was dead! The White House announced that Franklin Delano Roosevelt suddenly died of a cerebral hemorrhage at Warm Springs. The announce- ment was made by Commander Howard Bruenn, naval physician, who described the President's last hours : "At one o'clock this afternoon he was sitting in a chair while sketches were being made by an artist. He suddenly complained of a very severe headache. Within a few moments he lost con- sciousness and died at 4:35 p.m."
Memorial services were held by different organizations in Tifton. The Tifton High School in a special chapel program paid tribute to Roosevelt and later the high school annual, the Talisman, which the staff had already dedicated to the President, published the tribute.
Harry S. Truman, vice-president, was sworn in as President of the United States at 7:09 P.M. eastern war time.
The death of Roosevelt was "like the falling of an empire,"" but the nation went forward with plans for victory, and on May 8, President Tru- man announced the surrender of Germany. Mother's Day was set aside as a day of prayer, and union Thanksgiving services were held at the First Baptist Church in Tifton.
People were thankful for the surrender of Germany, but they knew the war was not over and that our boys had a tremendous task in conquering the Japanese. Before the final surrender of Japan the main celebration was on Flag Day, June 14, 1945, the one hundred-sixty-eighth anniversary of the day on 1777 our American Congress officially adopted the Stars and Stripes as the flag of the United States. President Wilson first proclaimed Flag Day in 1916.
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